Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Recalling a great Korean leader

Dermot Hudson and Shaun Pickford

By New
Worker correspondent

COMRADES and friends met in central London
on Saturday for a second meeting to commemorate the 71st anniversary
of dear leader Kim Jong Il and to celebrate the DPR Korea’s latest outstanding
scientific achievements in atomic power.

Kim Jong Il followed
in the footsteps of great leader Kim Il Sung to lead Democratic Korea and the
Korean revolutionary movement until his last breath in December 2011. So it was
fitting that the start of the event, organised by the Juché Idea Study Group
and the Association for the Study of Songun Politics, was heralded with the
playing of the Song of General Kim Jong
Il that is irrevocably linked to the Korean communist leader.

The meeting
began with openings on the Juché Idea, along with cultural films and discussion
on the philosophy that guides the Workers Party of Korea in the building and
defence of the DPRK.

Dermot Hudson,
who chaired the meeting, said: “Today 16th February is the 71st
anniversary of the birth of the great leader comrade Kim Jong Il, the sun of
Songun. It is rightfully celebrated as the Day of the Shining Star by the
Korean people and the progressive and revolutionary peoples of the entire
world.

Today when the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea faces unprecedented threats from US and
world imperialism it becomes ever more important for Juché idea and Songun idea
followers to uphold this occasion. Marking the birth anniversary of the great
leader comrade Kim Jong Il is an act of positive solidarity with the DPRK in
its struggle against US imperialism.

“Today the DPRK
is one of the few countries in the world that it is not a member of the IMF,
World Bank or World Trade Organisation. It does not have a foreign owned or
privately owned central bank. Moreover it does not have any foreign troops
stationed on its soil and does not take orders from other countries, as has
been demonstrated recently. This is the proud legacy of leader Kim Jong Il and
why we uphold his birth anniversary

“We remember the
great leader comrade Kim Jong Il on the occasion of the anniversary of his
birth for manifold and excellent ideological and theoretical achievements as
well his role as a great people's leader and constructor of socialism.

“Today the
Korean people under the guidance of the dear respected Marshal Kim Jong Un hold
the great leader comrade Kim Jong Il in high esteem as they complete the Juché
revolutionary cause. Under Marshal Kim Jong Un the Korean people will advance
along the road of independence, Songun and socialism charted by the great
leaders comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and win final victory.”

Next Shaun
Pickford of the Juché Idea Study Group spoke about the Kim Jong Il’s immense
contribution to socialist philosophy. He said that Kim Jong Il’s classic work Abuses of Socialism Are Intolerable that
was written soon after the counter-revolutions in the Soviet Union and the
people’s democracies of eastern Europe, was a brave work that refuted the
slanders of the imperialists and reactionaries against socialism and the socialist
idea and exposed the fallacies of revisionism and opportunism.

Despite the
intensification of the moves of the imperialists to stifle Korean style
socialism the DPRK has held firm. During the period of the "arduous
march" in the DPRK not one hospital or school closed down and now it was
taking giant steps into the 21st century to build a modern socialist
republic.

Many useful suggestions were made
to actively expand and develop solidarity with the DPRK, including the need for
a more vigorous expose of the south Korean puppet regime and to step up the
campaign to free Ro Su Hui, the south Korean peace campaigner jailed for four
years by the puppet regime. He was arrested in July 2012 after he returned from
a visit to the north. Ro was arrested and detained by the south Korean puppet
regime under the so-called "National Security Law" which punishes
south Koreans for visiting north Korea or sympathising with it in anyway.

And
informal discussion continued over refreshments long after the close of the
formal part of the meeting.